New restaurant and rooftop deck are eyed for empty San Jose building

SAN JOSE A new restaurant and rooftop deck are being eyed for an empty San Jose building a project that could help enliven a prime stretch of the city s downtown Related Articles Japantown properties in San Jose get new owner as former holder struggles East Bay hotel deal offers clues to robustness of regional lodging region Affordable housing project in San Jose lands key construction financing Intel sells empty Santa Clara building to veteran real estate firm Input centers in Santa Clara stand empty as they await power The project is being considered for South First St in downtown San Jose a building that over the years has been the site for Eulipia Restaurant Bar Cafe Stritch jazz club and the Mama Kin restaurant and music venue These have all closed their doors leaving the two-story building vacant Now a proposal being floated by restaurant entrepreneur Viet Nguyen and architect Abraham Zavala would bring a Vietnamese restaurant to the address I want to bring people back to downtown from other places and work with other downtown businesses to revamp downtown to attract more people from all over not just people in the area Nguyen announced in comments emailed to this news organization Nguyen added that he hopes to accomplish this through our brand and my reputation on social media The proposal envisions a full-service restaurant and a bar on two floors of the building according to Zavala a principal executive with AZ Design and Engineering The idea is to have the same line of restaurant as what Viet Nguyen offers in San Mateo and San Francisco Zavala explained It would be a great addition to SoFA The proposal also floats the notion of a rooftop venue atop the building We would put the deck on the existing roof with a railing all around Zavala reported The deck would be set back from the front of the building so it wouldn t even be visible from First Street The roof deck would be roughly to square feet the project plans state A lot of work would be performed on the inside of the building according to Zavala We would thoroughly transform the inside of the building he noted We want to use stairs and an elevator to connect the two floors and the roof to each other The plans indicate that a seating area would be on one side of the first floor and a bar on the other side In July an affiliate headed up by Nguyen paid million to buy the building where the restaurant would operate documents posted with the Santa Clara County Recorder s Office show Nguyen s group obtained million in financing from Bank of America at the time of the purchase Constructed in the narrow building totals about square feet The improvement gang hopes to avoid applying for a historic permit to revamp the property and build the roof deck according to Zavala Nguyen operates Gao Kitchen Bar in San Mateo and San Francisco as well as Ben Tre Vietnamese Homestyle Cuisine restaurants in Millbrae South San Francisco and San Francisco All my locations were dead spaces nobody required Nguyen revealed They are now very popular restaurants that help the surrounding businesses That is really my goal